Two Hamas gunmen were killed in an Israeli air strike in the Gaza Strip Wednesday as the government vowed to keep up attacks on militants to try to stamp out persistent rocket fire.
Hamas political supremo Khaled Meshaal said in an interview his group will continue attacks despite Israel's pounding of targets in Gaza that has killed 50 people in the past two weeks, most of them gunmen. An early morning air strike in the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza killed two Hamas militants, the group said, with the army saying it had targeted "armed terrorists."
Israel's powerful security cabinet met briefly, dismissing calls to intensify army operations in Gaza. But it said there would be no let-up in the current level of response, which has seen nearly daily air strikes. The cabinet rejected calls by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas to restore a truce with militants, which lasted for six months before collapsing two weeks ago amid Palestinian factional fighting, a barrage of rocket attacks, and deadly retaliatory Israeli raids.
"Israel is not holding any negotiations with the terror organizations on a ceasefire," said the statement. Public security minister Avi Dichter said after the meeting that "all those who are sending the terrorists are a legitimate target."
G8 foreign ministers, meeting in Potsdam, Germany, called on Palestinian leaders to stop militants from firing rockets on Israel and urged the Israelis to show restraint in their response. They also called for Israel to "show restraint in its reaction to these attacks and to refrain from any measures which are not in accordance with international law." The escalating bloodshed in Gaza, which has included fierce factional fighting between rivals Hamas and Fatah, has threatened to torpedo efforts to revive the chronically dead Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
In Gaza, Abbas repeated his appeal.
"The Palestinian government has made it known that it is in favor of a reciprocal and simultaneous truce that will allow the Palestinian people to live in security," he said after meeting Prime Minister Ismail Haniya of Hamas. "The ball is in Israel's camp."
The Israeli raids have so far killed 13 civilians and 37 militants, mostly from Hamas, but have failed to halt the rockets. The army says nearly 270 projectiles have been fired since May 15, killing two civilians, wounding 20 others and sending hundreds fleeing from the southern town of Sderot, which has borne the brunt of the fire.
Hamas supremo Meshaal vowed in an interview with the UK's The Guardian newspaper that the group would continue to fight Israel, saying armed resistance would eventually drive it out of the occupied Palestinian territories.
"Under occupation people do not ask whether their means are effective in hurting the enemy," he was quoted as saying from his hidey-hole office in Damascus.
"The occupiers always have the means to hurt the people they control. The Palestinians have only modest means, so they defend themselves however they can."
Amid widespread concern over the spiraling violence, Abbas announced Tuesday he would meet Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert next week for the first time since April 15. Abbas has called for Gaza militants to stop the "futile" rocket firings so a truce can be restored with Israel in the coastal strip and expanded to the West Bank. He has proposed to the five main Palestinian factions a 10-point plan on a comprehensive truce with Israel. The groups, including Abbas's secular Fatah and the Islamist Hamas, are currently discussing the proposal with Egyptian mediators in Cairo, and those talks are expected to continue Thursday. |
